Inspirational Weekly Parsha Insights and anecdotes of Rabbi Schwartz and his never dull family as they acclimate and absorb into their new home in Karmiel Israel, having made Aliyah- August 2010

Karmiel

Our view of the Galile

Friday, July 1, 2016

The Most Powerful Weapon- Korach 2016/5776

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

July
1st 2016 -Volume 6, Issue 39 25th
Sivan 5776

Parshat Korach

The Most Powerful Weapon

I was a captive audience. I began to understand what my
congregation might feel like during my sermons. But I was stuck. I never liked
visits to the dentist. But this was just supposed to be just a cleaning. Yet
this was Israel. My hygienist was an Israeli albeit a Ukrainian immigrant. A Jewish
one of course and obviously she had picked up one of the most important Israeli
annoying traits. We never pass up an opportunity to share, talk and ‘enlighten’
audiences that can’t really answer and argue with you. The fact that I was a
Rabbi made it too much to resist. Particularly as I sat in her chair with this
paper bib strapped around my neck, a bit of dribble oozing out of the side of
my mouth and this miniature vacuum cleaner sucking any sound that might come
out of my mouth. Just in case I didn’t appreciate the precariousness of my
situation, she began to ask me questions. Obviously knowing that I could only
garble out words or make hand signals to respond. She clearly wanted me to know
my place.

“So you’re a Rabbi?”

“Uhh Huhh…”

“You have beautiful, children, you know...”

“Aaank Uuu”

“I’m trying to have children also”

Nod Nod. “Please, don’t move your head”.

“Oh Ay” Dribble
dribble.

“You can spit now” whewww…

“Now open again”. Sigh…

And then her life story began. She was raised quite secular in the
Ukraine and she was fortunate enough-she said to meet the Chabad shluchim over
there. They connected her to the faith of her ancestors and gave her an appreciation
of her Jewish identity, certainly to the extent that she knew that she would
only marry someone Jewish. She met the love of her life there in the Ukraine
and they both decided they wanted to live in Israel, a place where they could
feel they are amongst their people. When she came here she started to light Shabbat
candles weekly and she even started attending services. Particularly she
enjoyed Friday night; the singing, the holiness and the connection she felt
deeply with her Father in heaven. She told me that she loved Judaism and even
did a lot of mitzvos, although she wasn’t as observant as she knew she should
be. She had even made three shiduchim-matches for friends of hers with
their Jewish spouses. ‘Isn’t that like the biggest mitzva?’ She asked
me. I nodded.

But she wanted kids and she had been trying for a while and it
seems she was having difficulty. ‘Did I have any ideas of what she could do’-she
asked with her hand stuck halfway down my throat? I garbled a little bit. She let me rinse. I
had a pretty radical suggestion for her. I asked her if she ever prayed and
asked Hashem to help her out. She seemed a bit taken aback. “Really? I could
do that?” Sure I told her. In fact that might just be what He is waiting
for. She was so happy. She glowed. She said that she knew that would be the
solution, because she has experience before that which let her know that Hashem
can and does perform miracles. She made me open my mouth again and continued
her story.

It seemed that she had gone on her honeymoon with her husband to
some Greek Island. They were swimming in the sea and whadda boom wadda bing
when she came out she was nadda ring. Her precious wedding ring was gone. It
had somehow fell off in the water and was gone. She was devastated. For two
days she was broken and distraught. She loved that ring. It was her symbol of
the moment that she was wedded forever to her beloved. She told me that the
last night she was there she prayed and cried to Hashem to somehow give it back
to her. She said she felt her prayers were certainly being heard. The next
morning when she came down to breakfast, sure enough. Someone came over to her
with the ring he had found along the sea shore that morning. It had seemingly
washed up. A miracle. I dribbled out a ‘Wow’.

Welcome to a dentist office in Israel. I left the office with her
thanks for helping to teach her that she could and should pray for everything.
The doors of prayer are always open. I thanked her for teaching me how holy
Hashem’s people are and for the miracles that he will perform for His children.
All they have to do is ask. There is nothing beyond the Almighty. It’s kind of
why He’s called that. But there is nothing beyond our power of prayer as well
to bring down his beneficence.

As I was reading this week’s Torah portion I was struck by an
incredible insight that really hits that point home. The Torah tells us about
perhaps the ‘mother of all’ Jewish fights. We have Korach, Moshe Rabbeinu’s
cousin, who is challenging Moshe’s leadership, accusing him of nepotism in the
appointments that he had made that of course all came from Hashem. He joined forces with the two big constant dissidents
and trouble makers Dasan and Aviram. The politics and bashing began, Egypt is a
land of milk and honey, all types of spurious rumors about Moshe were spread.
250 people joined Korach. Moshe begs for peace, implores them to back down. But
to no avail. Finally he decides that the only way to settle it is with a ketoret/sacrifice
cook-off. Whichever ketores becomes accepted by God will have the right
to be the High priest. The die is cast. Everyone is ready. And then Moshe, the
greatest and most humble of all men, does something seemingly strange.

Bamidbar (16:15) This distressed Moshe
greatly and he said to Hashem ‘Do not turn to their gift-offering’. I have not
taken a donkey of anyone of them, nor have I wronged even one of them.

This verse and prayer of Moshe jumped out at me. First of all how
many of us could ever make that statement in our lives. They have never wronged
any Jew. Particularly a leader of Jews. Who could honestly state that they have
never done anything bad to anyone. Isn’t there always someone that is going to
get hurt? Or who among us can ever make that claim even that they never ‘took a
donkey’. Rashi notes that Moshe said that even when he came to redeem the
Jewish people from Egypt, he paid for his own transportation to get there. Can
we ever say that we have never wasted any time on our work computers or our
employers money for our own purposes? Have you ever stopped along the way
during your week day for a bit of personal time a quick understandable and
perhaps even justifiable break or nosh? Yet Moshe, the most righteous of all of
our leaders certainly checked all his ways and never violated anything.
Amazing!

But what amazed me even more than this was that if this was all true.
If Moshe’s appointments were all by Divine command. If Korach and his cronies
were trouble makers, liars, who were challenging the greatest and most honest
and faithful leader. The only person in the world that Hashem had previously
said that He spoke to face to face with. The man who brought down the Torah,
redeemed the nation from Egypt that achieved forgiveness after the golden calf.
They were challenging God Himself to a large degree. Why then did Moshe then
feel the need to implore Hashem not accept their prayer and their sacrifice?
Was there ever any chance that He would?

The Masaat Melech points out from here, that we see that Moshe
recognized and appreciated how great the power of prayer could be before God, that
we have yet to appreciate. Moshe was entirely right, Korach was entirely wrong.
If his sacrifice would have been accepted it would have wreaked havoc amongst
the Jewish people. Yet Moshe knew that a true heartfelt prayer by Korach still
had the power to achieve that impossible. Despite his evil plans, despite the
chaos it would cause, despite the fact that it was Moshe he was going up
againss. It was like a nuclear arsenal that Korach still possessed that
intimidated even Moshe. So much so that Moshe felt the need to ask Hashem not
to heed Korach’s prayer. So much so that Moshe, the most humble of all men,
felt the need to explain, beseech and even justify to Hashem why he should not accept
that prayer based on Moshe’s own merits. That is how far the power of prayer
can go. Imagine what we could accomplish with our prayers for good.

I am concluding this E-Mail this Friday morning, the day after
this horrific, barbaric attack by the animals that we have allowed to remain
and run rampant in our country. A society that celebrates death, terror and
views the murder of a 13 year old girl, who just wanted to be a dancer and who
loved everyone she met, in her bed as something that is heroic. There is anger,
there is fear, and there is disillusionment and pain in our nation today. When
will this end? When will it stop? People are posting, commenting, yelling,
sharing, tweeting and condemning. None of that will change anything. There is
one thing that will though. I know it sounds crazy and naïve. But my dental hygienist
said it works. It’s called prayer. Talking and asking Hashem to make it stop.
To avenge our blood. To open up the ground and swallow these beasts up.

But do we really have to pray? Isn’t it obvious that these are the
bad guys and we just want to live in peace? That we want to dance and they want
to kill and destroy. Doesn’t Hashem know this? Why do we have to ask him? The
answer, as we can learn from Moshe and Korach, is that these animals and
terrorists are also praying. And their prayer as distorted and twisted as it
may be, has power to it, Just as Korach’s prayer would have, despite the chaos
that would’ve rained down on us had his prayer been accepted. The most powerful
weapon our enemies- Yishmael (which means God will listen {to our prayer}) has,
is not their rocks, their knives, their media, their United Nations support or
even their hatred or our wimpiness. The most powerful weapon they have is their
prayers and our lack of counter prayers. So let’s stop posting. Let’s stop
commenting. Let’s stop lobbying an apathetic- at best- world or even worse our
own pathetic politicians. Let’s start turning our mouths and our hearts, as
Moshe did, to the One that can perform miracles. That can make it all better.
May he finally avenge the blood of our children.

Have an holy Shabbos and a blessed new month of Tamuz,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

******************

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S VIDEO OF THEWEEK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ForS09KA29o–A song I composed Avinu Malkeinu a
year ago after the horrific murder in Har Nof whose words sadly are still
applicable today May our Father and King avenge the blood of our innocents.

“Ale tseyn zoln bay im aroysfaln, nor eyner
zol im blaybn oyf tson veytung”-. All his teeth should fall out except one to make him suffer.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JEWISH PERSONALITY AND HIS
QUOTES IN HONOR OF THE YARTZEIT OF THE WEEK

“If two
people sit together and there are no words of Torah between them, it is a
session of mockers...But if two people sit together and there are words of
Torah between them, the Divine Presence rests between them”

“The parchments are burning,
but the letters are soaring on high.”

Reb Chananya ben Tradyon - 27th
of Sivan this Shabbos 2nd CE-One of the greatest leaders of the Mishna period. He lived up here
in the North of Israel during one of the worst periods in Jewish history since
the destruction of the Temple. The Revolt of Bat Kochva had been put down by
the Romans led by Hadrian the Temple mount had been plowed down and the Jews had
been thrown out of Jerusalem and moved up North.Rabbi Chanina was a third generation Tana. He
lived in Sichnin, in the Lower Galilee. He was the rosh yeshivah and head of
the beit din in Sichnin. The Talmud tells us a story of about the piety of
Rabbi Chanina and how once charity money had gotten mixed up with his own money
and how he donated all of it to charity to remove any question. This led the
great Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yaacov said of him, "A person should not give
his money to the charity purse unless it is supervised by a Torah scholar such
as Chanina ben Teradion

R' Chanina had two sons and two daughters. One
son associated with robbers and was put to death, and the other was a Torah
scholar. His well-known daughter was Beruriah. Who was an incredible scholar in
her own right whose teachings are told in the Talmud. She was the wife of the
famous Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes. His other daughter was sentenced to a house of
ill repute when R' Chanina was killed, because she was once walking in front of
Roman notables who remarked "How beautiful are this maiden's steps,"
hereupon she was particular about how she stepped. She was later saved miraculously
from the brothel by R' Meir Baal HaNes, and it was as a result of that
miracle that he got his famous name.

Lupinus the Roman Emperor at the time was studying Torah and asked
the ten great sages of that time: "What is the law according to your
Torah, for a Jew who sells another into captivity?" (referring to the sale
of Joseph by his brothers) "Capital Punishment," answered Rabbi Akiva
and his colleagues. "But, Yosef's brothers were never punished for their
crime!" the Roman protested, and then began to set his deadly trap.
"Justice must be done, and there has been no leaders to take their places
until the ten of you!". When R' Nechunya ben HaKana heard of
this decree, he told R' Yishmael Ben Elisha to asend to Heaven to ascertain
whether this was the result of heavenly decree. R' Yishmael purified himself,
uttered God's secret name, and ascended to Heaven. He asked the angel Gavriel
about the decree, and Gavriel responded, "Accept it upon yourselves,
righteous and beloved men, for I have heard behind the partition that this is
to be your destiny," and R' Yishmael was told that the ten sages would be
given to the evil angel Samael as a
punishment for the selling of Yoseph. R' Yishmael reported to his colleagues
what he had been told, and they accepted the heavenly decree.

Rabbi Chanina was sentenced to death by the Romans, for teaching Torah and
holding public gatherings despite the government's prohibition against it. He
was burnt at the stake on the 27 of Sivan, wrapped in the Torah scroll that he
had been holding when he was arrested. Tufts of wool soaked in water were
placed over his heart so that his death should be prolonged. His daughter
Beruriah cried out, "Father, that I should see you like this!" He
answered, "Had I been burnt alone, it would have been difficult for me.
Since I am being burnt with a Torah scroll with me, He who avenges the plight of the Torah
scroll will avenge my plight." His students said to him, "Rabbi, what
do you see?" He responded "The parchments are burning, but the
letters are soaring on high." He was told to open his mouth to allow the
fire in to hasten his death, but he said, "It is better that He who gave [my
life] should take it." The executioner offered to remove the tufts of wool
in exchange for a portion in the World to Come. R' Chanina agreed, and when he
died, the executioner jumped into the flames, whereupon a heavenly voice
proclaimed that the two were assigned to the World to Come. At the conclusion
of the famous story of the death of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon, Rebbi wept and
stated that "there are those that acquire the Future World in a moment
while others must work for it for many years" .

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q. A
settlement established after 1948 is:

A. Afula

B. Ma’aleh haHamisha

C. Nahariya

D. Arad

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL RASHI OF THE WEEK

The Chatam Sofer derives a powerful lesson
this week from a Rashi interpretation of one of the most incredible stories
about Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah tells us that even after Korach and his group
had hooked up with perhaps the two worst Jews and trouble makers who had been
making trouble for Moshe from day one back in Egypt, the notorious Dasan and
Aviram. For it was they who snitched on Moshe to Pharaoh that forced him to
flee Egypt. It was they that convinced the Jews that Moshe couldn’t produce the
goods when Pharaoh upped their quotas, It was them by that disobeyed by the
Manna and that were of the complainers. Yet even so the Torah tells us that
Moshe tried to meet with them and appease them.

Bamidbar
(16:12) “And Moshe sent for Dasan and Aviram the children of Eliav and they said
we will not go up.”

Rashi notes

‘
From here we see that one should not be ‘maachzik’ –keep up or establish a
dispute for Moshe went after them to restore harmony with them with words of
peace’

Although the Torah doesn’t ‘tell us what the
words of peace and merely says that he sent for them, but perhaps the fact that
the Torah tells us they were the children of Eliav, meaning he was reminding
them of who their father was and what a shame their actions would be for him what
they were doing.

But the Chatam Sofer notes another incredible
lesson that Rashi is highlighting. The word chazaka or machzik is
utilized as a halachic term as establishing something as permanent. Whether it
as an ox that gores three times as a goring ox, whether it is my ownership of a
field after three years, whether it is whether something is pure or tamei,
in regards to the death penalty in every area of Jewish law the laws of chazaka
that past precedent can give us a status and establish a basis and determine
something.

That is true the Chatam Sofer says except for
when it comes to creating a fight, holding up a fight. One can never say this
person can not make peace. This person is not someone who can ever come back.
This individual is just out to make trouble and there is no hope of
reconciliation. ‘ein machzikin b’machloket’- one can never make a chazaka
or a determination when it comes to fighting and establishing peace. That is
the lesson of Moshe and Korach. These were certainly two individuals, who I don’t
think anyone would ever think there was a chance or hope of getting to back down.
And in fact they didn’t. Yet Rashi notes that it is irrelevant. When it comes
to fighting and machloket past behavior is no proof that reconciliation
is not possible. There is always a chance for peace.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL HISTORICAL EVENT THAT
HAPPENED ON THIS DATE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

1st Political
Jewish assassination in Israel-29th Sivan July
1st 1924.-Politics
they say makes strange bedfellow and in Israel that is certainly the case more
so then anywhere else. There are perhaps no stranger bedfellows then Yackov
Yisrael De Haan and Reb Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, The Agudat Yisrael and
eventually the radical Neturei Karta and this formerly secular respected Dutch
poet, writer and activist. In the wake of the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin
in 1995 for his support of peace with the Arabs and the Oslo accords by a Jew,
history seems to forget that a mere 70 years ago it was the Hagana and Rabin’s
compatriots Ben Gurion and Yitzchak Ben Zvi that had ordered the first
political assassination of another Jew, De Haan, for his support for peace with
the Arabs and what they felt were anti-zionist actions. It’s a strange world.

Yackov Yisrael De Haan was
raised a religious Jew in the Netherlands. His father was a shochet and Chazan.
He was one of 18 children and at an early age left his religious upbringing
associating with Socialists and rising up in the world of culture and art as
well as engaging in a personal lifestyle that was an antithesis to his
religious upbringing having known to have throughout his life many intimate
male ‘partners’ with whom he lived with. Ultimately after WWI he made Aliyah to
Israel with a renewed belief in Zionism and the the promise of the British
mandate. However he very quickly became disenchanted with the Zionist leaders
and he felt more drawn to the religious community despite his personal
proclivities. He felt that Zionism and the desire for a Jewish State would
endanger the Jews of the old Yishuv who were fine living in peace under the
Arab rulers. And thus he developed a relationship with the leader of the old
YIshuv Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnefeld to oppose the Zionists and their desire to
establish a Jewish State. Originally this was the position and led to the founding
of the Agudath Yisrael orthodox organization.

On the behalf of Rabbi
Sonnefeld, De Haan met with the King of Jordan and discussed the renouncing of
the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in exchange
for peace. He traveled extensively to Europe as well on the behalf of the
Chareidi community to present their position to the European representatives.
Obviously he was perceived as a major threat to the Zionist movement as here he
was an educated and respected member of the European bourgeois and yet he was
presenting the views of the ultra-religious backward primitive Rabbis that they
were opposing and could easily discredit. So on July 1st of 1924 on
his way home from synagogue De Haan was assassinated by Avraham Tehoumi under
orders of the Zionist leaders. This was the first assassination of Jew against
Jew in the Zionist period.

De Haan’s funeral on Mt. Olives
was attended by great Rabbis, Jewish and Arab leaders. Thousands of people
attended as well as many European representatives. In the end the State of
Israel was established as you know. The Agudah’s policy shifted to accept and
work with the new reality of the State of Israel. The Neturei Karta though
until today views De Haan as a martyr for their cause. They see his murder as
the embodiment of the evil of Zionist ‘regime’ and they feel they continue in
his path of establishing relations with the Arabs and identifying with them in
what they believe is the only way to peace through the process of the
dismantling of the Zionist State of Israel.

I find it ironic though today
in what many call the post-zionist world. Where it is those same Early Zionist
leaders that felt that it was important to murder someone who considered
making peace with the Arabs and renouncing the Jewish claim to the land of
Israel are today the biggest proponents of the ‘peace movement’ and the return
of arab lands ‘unjustly’ taken from them. It is ironic as well that the most
‘ultra-religious’ Jews who protest at parades that they view as being immodest
and abominations, pay homage and view as their trailblazer an individual who
clearly led a lifestyle that was excactly what they are protesting against and
is noted and wrote books, poems and articles about the beauty of those
relationships even after he was associated with them. A strange world. Only the
Jews and only in Israel….

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PRAYER JOKES OF THE WEEK

A little
boy was kneeling beside his bed with his mother and grandmother and softly
saying his prayers, "Dear God, please bless Mummy and Daddy and all the
family and please give me a good night's sleep."
Suddenly he looked up and shouted, "And don't forget to give
me a bicycle for my birthday!!"

"There is no need to shout like
that," said his mother. "God isn't deaf."
"No," said the little boy, "but Grandma is."

A 4-year-old
boy who was asked to thank Hashem after their Shabbos dinner. The family
members bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking God for
all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy, Daddy,
brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his aunts and uncles. Then he began
to thank God for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the
fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the desert.

Then he paused, and everyone waited--and
waited. After a long silence, the young fellow looked up at his mother and
asked, "If I thank Hashem for the broccoli, won't he know that I'm
lying?"

A journalist was assigned to the Jerusalem
bureau of his newspaper. He gets an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall.
After several weeks he realizes that whenever he looks at the wall he sees an
old Jewish man praying vigorously.

The journalist wondered whether there was a publishable
story here. He goes down to the wall, introduces himself and says: "You
come every day to the wall. What are you praying for?"
The old man replies: "What am I praying for? In the morning I pray for
world peace, then I pray for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a glass of
tea, and I come back to the wall to pray for the eradication of illness and
disease from the earth."
The journalist is taken by the old man's sincerity and persistence. "You
mean you have been coming to the wall to pray every day for these things?"

The old man nods.

"How long have you been coming to
the wall to pray for these things?"
The old man becomes reflective and then replies: "How long? Maybe twenty,
twenty-five years."
The amazed journalist finally asks: "How does it feel to come and pray
every day for over 20 years for these things?"
"How does it feel?" the old man replies. "It feels like I'm
talking to a wall."

Three preachers sat discussing the best
positions for prayer while a telephone repairman worked nearby. "Kneeling
is definitely best," claimed one.
"No," another contended. "I get the best results standing
with my hands outstretched to Heaven."
"You're both wrong," the third insisted. "The most
effective prayer position is lying prostrate, face down on the floor."

The repairman could contain himself no
longer. "Hey, fellas, " he interrupted, "the best prayin' I ever
did was hangin' upside down from a telephone pole.":

**************

Answer is D – Igot this one wrong. Nahariya I knew
was founded before the State as a German Yishuv that was already here during
the British mandate. Afula as well I knew was before the establishment of the
State. I though the correct answer was Maaleh Hachamisha-named after 5 hmembers
of the kibbutz that were killed south of the kibbutz- which I reasoned was a
settlement (the only one of the choices incidentally) as the rest are all
cities. However that was also established before the State in the late 1930’s.
The correct answer is Arad which although the first attempt to establish it was
in the 1920’s that failed and it was only established later on in the 1960’s.
Interestingly enough Arad is although the oldest of the above cities as ancient
ruins from the first Temple period have been found there that are really cool!..

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About Me

Hi, thanks for popping in. I am a recent Oleh. My wife Aliza and children Shani, Yonah, Rivkah, Elka and Tully recently moved to Karmiel Israel from Seattle Washington where we used to have a little Shul in our home the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). I have been involved in Jewish educational outreach for over 15 years. Originally a Detroiter, we have been lucky enough to live in Midwood New York, Des Moines Iowa, Norfolk Virginia and Seattle. I'm just a down to earth guy who would rather talk in the front of the shul than the back so i became a Rabbi where that becomes your job. I love Jews,Stories, Israel, and chulent. Recently we opened up the Young Israel of Karmiel and look forward to greeting the many North American and Anglo Olim who will join us here in the beautiful Galil.
Please comment away I thrive on your input. Thanks!

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